From 2ecc6056716c48e2e46901f02e800ab693014c78 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Patrik Lermon <patrik.lermon@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2025 17:17:10 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Add -e/--env flag to specify environment files

Implements a CLI flag to specify environment files, matching Honcho's
behavior. This allows users to specify custom env files via command-line
flag instead of only through the OVERMIND_ENV environment variable.

Changes:
- Add EnvFiles field to start.Handler struct
- Add -e/--env flag to start command (maps to OVERMIND_ENV env var)
- Add loadEnvFiles() method to parse and load comma-separated env files
- Load env files from flag before processing other options

The flag accepts comma-separated file paths and loads them after the
default env files (~/.overmind.env, ./.overmind.env, ./.env), allowing
flag-specified files to override default values.

Usage:
  overmind start -e .env.local
  overmind start -e .env.local,.env.development
  overmind start --env .env.local,.env.development

Closes #206
---
 main.go          |  1 +
 start/handler.go | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+)

diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 8ad8f56..3fa429a 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ func setupStartCmd() cli.Command {
 				cli.StringFlag{Name: "tmux-config, F", EnvVar: "OVERMIND_TMUX_CONFIG", Usage: "Specify an alternative tmux config path to be used by Overmind", Destination: &c.TmuxConfigPath},
 				cli.StringFlag{Name: "ignored-processes, x", EnvVar: "OVERMIND_IGNORED_PROCESSES", Usage: "Specify process names to prevent from launching. Useful if you want to run all but one or two processes. Divide names with comma. Takes precedence over the 'processes' flag.", Destination: &c.IgnoredProcNames},
 				cli.StringFlag{Name: "shell, H", EnvVar: "OVERMIND_SHELL", Usage: "Specify shell to run processes with.", Value: "sh", Destination: &c.Shell},
+				cli.StringFlag{Name: "env, e", EnvVar: "OVERMIND_ENV", Usage: "Environment file[,file] to load. Can specify multiple files separated by comma", Destination: &c.EnvFiles},
 			},
 			socketFlags(&c.SocketPath, &c.Network)...,
 		),
diff --git a/start/handler.go b/start/handler.go
index 4244519..f75825b 100644
--- a/start/handler.go
+++ b/start/handler.go
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
 	"syscall"
 
 	"github.com/DarthSim/overmind/v2/utils"
+	"github.com/Envek/godotenv"
 
 	"github.com/urfave/cli"
 )
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@ type Handler struct {
 	Daemonize          bool
 	TmuxConfigPath     string
 	Shell              string
+	EnvFiles           string
 }
 
 // AbsRoot returns absolute path to the working directory
@@ -65,6 +67,11 @@ func (h *Handler) AbsRoot() (string, error) {
 
 // Run runs the start command
 func (h *Handler) Run(c *cli.Context) error {
+	// Load env files specified via -e/--env flag
+	if len(h.EnvFiles) > 0 {
+		h.loadEnvFiles(h.EnvFiles)
+	}
+
 	err := h.parseColors(c.String("colors"))
 	utils.FatalOnErr(err)
 
@@ -166,3 +173,18 @@ func (h *Handler) parseStopSignals(signals string) error {
 
 	return nil
 }
+
+func (h *Handler) loadEnvFiles(envFiles string) {
+	envs := strings.Split(envFiles, ",")
+	for _, e := range envs {
+		e = strings.TrimSpace(e)
+		if len(e) > 0 {
+			err := godotenv.Overload(e)
+			if err != nil {
+				if !os.IsNotExist(err) {
+					fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "overmind: skipping %s due to error: %v\n", e, err)
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}